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XXVI.— The Polycheeta Sedentaria of the Firth of Forth. By J. T. 

 Cunningham, B.A., Fellow of University College, Oxford, Superintendent 

 of the Granton Marine Laboratory ; and G. A. Ramage, Vans Dunlop 

 Scholar in Edinburgh University. (Plates XXXVI -XLVII) 



(Read 15th July 1887.) 



The studies of which the results are here set forth were carried on at the 

 Granton Marine Laboratory of the Scottish Meteorological Society, in the 

 years 1886 and 1887. Our memoir is by no means a monograph, although our 

 original aim was to investigate every species taxonomically, anatomically, 

 and embryologically. Much further study would have been necessary to carry 

 out this aim at all completely, but in August 1887, both of us, for different 

 reasons, had to abandon our work at Granton and leave Scotland. We have 

 thought it better to publish the notes and drawings we had made, because 

 they will probably be of service to British naturalists interested in the 

 Polychseta, no extensive work on these forms having appeared in English since 

 eJohnston's Catalogue of Non- Parasitical Worms in the British Museum, 

 which was published 1865, and which is now a very inadequate guide to the 

 study of the subject. The greater part of the work of collecting, and much 

 the larger part of the drawings, were done by Mr Ramage. A discussion of 

 some anatomical points has been published separately by Mr Cunningham 

 (" Some Points in the Anatomy of Polychgeta," Quart. Jour. Micr. Sci., 1887). 



Fam. SpionidjE, Sars, 1861. 



Aricice naidince. — A. S. Oersted, Zur Classification der Annulaten, Arch. f. 

 Naturges., x., 1844. 



Spionidce.—M. Sars, Christ. Vid. Selsk. Fork, 1861, p. 61. 



Oeested's family Aricise included Arieia, Scoloplos, Aonis, Leucodorum, 

 Nerine, Spio, Disoma, Sphserodorum, Cirratulus, Dodecaceria, Ophelina, 

 Ophelia, and Eumenia. Johnston, in his Ariciadse, included the Cirratulidse 

 and Spionidse, but separated the Opheliacese and Eumenia. Sars defined the 

 Spionidse by the characters common to Nerine, Spio, Leucodore, Spione, and 

 Disoma, exclusive of any other genus ; and Malmgren accepts this definition, 

 but splits up the genus Nerine into two, Nerine and Scolecolepis. 



Characters of the Family. — A large number of usually short somites, all but 

 the first and last provided with well-developed parapodia, and some or all of 

 them with cirriform ciliated branchiae. These arise near the base of the noto- 

 podium, and are bent towards the middle line of the dorsal surface. The 



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